The Missional Network

Jeremiah 29:1-7

01Disorientation
There is so much that is changing in our world today that it is easy to get disoriented. We can feel unsettled, unsure, and full of questions. But, it could be that God is disorienting us so that the Spirit can move us to a new place of learning, understanding, and serving. In Jeremiah 29:2, it says that “King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.” For those who remained behind after the exile, this was a “brain drain”. They were now living in a leadership vacuum. All of their key leaders had been carried off. It would have been disorienting to figure out how to live in a place where all the key leaders were now gone. For the exiles, they had to figure out what God was up to and how they should now live in this strange, new land. Discontinuous change forces us to figure out how God is calling us to live in new ways and opens us up to new learnings that we would not achieve otherwise. What is God prompting us to learn in the midst of today’s disorientation?

On the Road to Emmaus Luke 24: 13-35

01 Recently I was reading “On the Road to Emmaus” and was struck by vs. 16 “but they were kept from recognizing him”. Why was this, I wonder? Was it because the disciples were not ready to see Jesus or was it that they were not “open” to seeing him? How often are our eyes not open to seeing Jesus at work in the community? I wonder how often we don't “see” Jesus at work in our midst...in those situations that we don't typically label as mission.

01The outcome belongs to God
Genesis 12: 6-7 "Abraham (came)... to Shechem, to the oak of Moreh... Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said “to your seed I will give this land”"

I imagine Abraham set out on his journey with a certain degree of vulnerability, apprehension even. What had he done in leaving behind the security of familiar surroundings? Is this journey really foolishness or wisdom?

Then he comes to a large oak tree. The tree has developed from a small acorn – within the acorn was one seed. It might have taken hundreds of years for the seed to become the spreading oak. Perhaps God used that tree to strengthen Abraham’s resolve as He speaks to Abraham about his own ‘seed’. It is an image that will stay with him. Without such an image it is easy to become disillusioned with our achievements in the light of what was promised by God. What are you planting? What might God make of it in generations to come?